Monday, August 27

Do You Mind If I Transplant Your Character's Organs?

The subject of fan fiction is one I like to avoid. Not because I perceive it to be an amateur outlet or a lower form of creative writing but because it is a constant reminder of my own venture into the realm which began over a decade ago.

Gosh, just writing that makes me feel sophisticated. I mean old. Not frowning on fan fiction. Nope. Just cringing at what I did with it.

Oh, I’ve read more than my share of fan fics, ranging from frivolous to flat-out disturbing. I won’t go into details because my memory isn’t so flash that it can dictate happenings from a decade past. Well, that’s a half-truth. Some of it is vivid.

Fan fiction stems from two things: a reader’s enamourment with a story/characters and a dissatisfaction or void they wish to fill. Fan fiction is proof that the author has ignited passion in their readers. You can’t satisfy everyone but if someone is taken by your creation, even if they wish to warp their own version of it, you have made an impact.

Did I say warp? That sounds incredibly rude. Yet it is not inaccurate. The majority of fan fiction does not stick true to the narrative style or characteristics of the original. Often these works stray so far from the author’s style that it is a wonder more people do not exclaim in horror that we as fans have just performed a live autopsy on our favourite characters, leaving them looking near-identical on the surface but raging with immense alterations within.

Who’s guilty? Don’t be shy...I’m raising my hand too.

Before the lovers and writers of fan fiction begin to pelt me with fictional organs, I want to attest that fan fiction made the twelve year old writer in me productive. It was positive. The fan in me fuelled my creativity and I wrote chapter after chapter. It may have not been excellent writing (not pinning this on my age but the fact that it was first draft stuff) but I was writing.

So while part of me wishes to apologise to the fictional characters I nipped and tucked, I am grateful that they inspired me to write with such fervour. So, sorry about that, chaps but we all know there was no real damage in the end.

Do I still write fan fiction? No. I just imagine my own fandom scenarios while I listen to music. Not something I’ve discarded...just locked away in my head.